European low cost airlines are getting pretty incestuous lately. First Germanwings started sharing flight bookings with Clickair, which then merged with Vueling. The news this week is that Germanwings is in serious talks to merge with TuiFly and Condor, two other German based LCCs.

But we'll have to wait on the legalities of it all: Condor tried to merge with Air Berlin last year but the German cartel office nixed the idea.

If you can sort all that out, you're doing well. We have a simpler suggestion: Just merge the lot of them and call it Cheap German Airlines.

Related Stories:
· Condor Joins TuiFly/Germanwings Tie-Up Talks [Reuters]
· Germanwings and Clickair Get Into Bed [Jaunted]
· Airline Mergers, Spanish Style [Jaunted]

[Photo: Andrei Dimofte]]]> amandak 2008-07-14T09:15:16-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/5/29/94935/4417

Here's a nice exercise in friendly cooperation: European low cost carriers Clickair and Germanwings have made an agreement to promote each other's (non-competing) flights.

That means, for example, if you're looking at Clickair flights from Barcelona to Germany, their own destinations of Frankfurt, Berlin and Munich will pop up, but so will Germanwings routes to Stuttgart and Cologne. If you then choose a flight from Germanwings, Clickair will redirect you over to that booking site.

We'll be interested to see if this new trend expands--and perhaps one day the whole of Europe will be covered by one mega-low-cost-carrier. Or they'll all collapse and we'll be taking the train.

Related Stories:
· Clickair and Germanwings Team Up [Peanuts]
· More Trains in Spain than Planes [Jaunted]
· Low Cost Carriers coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: carthesian]]]> amandak 2008-05-30T09:30:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/12/13/51830/700

Our inbox has been so full of flight offers from European low cost carriers since the Christmas season started that we couldn't possibly fit them all on our travel calendar. But wait... there's more, this time from the friendly folk of Germany.

Large LCC Germanwings is always big on promotional fares and right now has some cute wooden nutcrackers advertising flights for "€0*". Yes, zero euros, but with that little star, meaning the final cost for your flight will be between €19.78 and €55.85 ($29-$82). (Whatever happened to truth in advertising?) There are just 100,000 tickets at this price, so book fast--they're for travel through mid-March.

In the true spirit of Christmas giving, we're hoping that Germanwings will throw in a painted nutcracker with every ticket. Please?

Related Stories:
· Germanwings [Official Site]
· European Airlines Play Santa [Jaunted]
· Iceland on the Cheap and SkyEurope Celebrates [Jaunted]]]> amandak 2007-12-13T09:15:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/9/19/75316/5751

German-based European LCC Air Berlin is also unashamedly pushing the new truth-in-advertising deal: their top-of-the-web-page motto now reads "Incl. taxes. Charges. And a smile." Like rival Germanwings, they also now have a frequent flyer program and are constantly announcing new routes, like the recent news that twice-daily London Stansted to Munich flights will start in November.

Air Berlin has a pretty extensive network already, servicing 97 different destinations, including 20 different cities in Germany. And they're not afraid to go where the sunburnt holidaymakers go, either: their website boasts 360 flights a week from various European cities to the Spanish island of Mallorca.

They also fly to the usually-less-serviced regions of Scandinavia and Russia, which gets the thumbs-up from us. Thumbs-down for ignoring Poland and all those other bits between western Europe and Russia, but with a run-of-the-mill name like Air Berlin they probably didn't want to compete with Wizz Air.

Related Stories:
· Air Berlin [Official Site]
· Site Scramble: Air Berlin [Jaunted]
· Germanwings' 5th Birthday Means Cheap Tickets [Jaunted]

[Photo: MarS]]]> amandak 2007-09-19T09:15:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/9/14/161814/005 This quick hit list is all about pop culture travel trends in real-time. Six bits of travel pressed, dry candy pixels for you to digest weekly.

Fame
	Virgin America's Getting In-Flight WiFi
	50,000 Germanwings Flights For Next to Nothing
	Chris Dodd Wants You To Visit Cuba. Legally.

Lame
	The Saga Continues
	Still Searching for Steve Fossett
	German Tourists Stealing from the Tip Jar

]]> pbb 2007-09-14T16:45:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/9/12/221349/367

European LCC Germanwings always tries to be innovative--after all, they were the first to try to win LCC customer loyalty with their attempt at an air miles scheme, although they probably missed the point that people who use budget airlines do so because they want to pay the cheapest price, not cash in miles for free magazine subscriptions.

This week, rather than go all out to copy RyanAir's free tickets, Germanwings is offering a deal that might turn out to be better value. Since the airline's celebrating 5 years in the skies, tickets on 50,000 flights are on sale for just €5 (that's less than $7). Unlike RyanAir's "free" tickets, these €5 tickets already include all taxes and charges. Flights are on sale until midnight Sunday, and you have to travel between November 2007 and February 2008.

Related Stories:
· Germanwings [Official Site]
· Germanwings Makes Smart Connections (Maybe) [Jaunted]
· Germanwings Goes High Rent [Jaunted]
· RyanAir Giving Away 6 Million Tickets [Jaunted]

[Photo: klabusta]]]> amandak 2007-09-13T09:15:02-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/8/21/205044/238

Seems that German low-cost carrier Germanwings really does want to be all modern and innovative. In its latest move to be something more than a budget airline, Germanwing has announced its Smart Connect service, which enables you to buy two connecting flights with just one ticket.

So, if you want to fly from London to Moscow, you could book a Germanwings flight going through one of the main German hubs like Stuttgart or Berlin, and although you'll have to recheck your baggage (security requirements), Germanwings promises that the connection will be easy and the flight will be cheaper than the old way where you had to buy two separate tickets. Let's wait and see if it works in practice, but the idea isn't too bad.

Related Stories:
· Germanwings Wants You To Pay Less [Jaunted]
· Germanwings Goes High Rent [Jaunted]

[Photo: albspotter] ]]> amandak 2007-08-22T09:11:01-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/